BigQuery return timestamp field as exponential

[debopamsengupta]

This is the result from the time field in the BigQuery dataset instead of some thing like this

Is there something I'm missing ?

[stephenplusplus]

@debopamsengupta did you mean to close?

[debopamsengupta]

Well, found a workaround as the exponential can be converted into a Unix timestamp using Number(Number(time).toPrecision(10))
But it would be good to just receive the string from BigQuery

[stephenplusplus]

I agree! Which API call is the time field returned in?

[debopamsengupta]

https://googlecloudplatform.github.io/gcloud-node/#/docs/v0.25.1/bigquery?method=query returns the time field

[stephenplusplus]

I can't find that property being returned in the raw API response (https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/reference/v2/jobs/query)

Is this your own data? It looks like we could convert to a Date object if we see the matching schema type for a returned property is "TIMESTAMP".

[debopamsengupta]

Well this is the schema for the table, and the schema type for the field time is TIMESTAMP

[stephenplusplus]

Got it, thanks. Sorry for all the questions, just wanted to make sure I understood. I think we can sniff out when we are returning these types and convert them to the format that makes sense. Thanks for calling this out!

[debopamsengupta]

Thanks, no problem !

[jgeewax]

Hey guys, any chance we can continue the old behavior by passing a special parameter? That is, what if I really just want the raw data? Can I ask for raw (un-schema-parsed) results? /cc @callmehiphop

[stephenplusplus]

The raw data will still come through in the apiResponse parameter:

table.query('SELECT * FROM ...', function(err, rows, nextQuery, apiResponse) {
  // apiResponse:
  {
    "schema": {
      "fields": [
        {
          "name": "url",
          "type": "STRING",
          "mode": "NULLABLE"
        }
      ]
    },
    "rows": [
      {
        "f": [
          {
            "v": "https://github.com/jfeaver/hireme"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
});

[jgeewax]

OK cool :) Where do we document the full apiResponse object? Do we link back to the BigQuery page that defines the schema of that object?

[stephenplusplus]

It's a bit of a click-hunt, but if you get to the bigQuery#query docs, the last link on the page ("Jobs: query API Documentation" under the "More information" section) takes you to https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/reference/v2/jobs/query which shows the response body.

I'll open a new issue for making the apiResponse callback parameter linkable directly to the response body. For now, I made a small note in the release notes about the raw response.

[jgeewax]

Oh that's a great idea. Maybe all our apiResponse parameters could point to the API page on cloud.google.com?

[stephenplusplus]

Yeah, I think that'd be awesome! Issue opened: #1007